For some of us it was our fathers, and for some of us it was our grand-fathers,
I would not be surprised that some of us had great-grand-fathers take the beachs
or made the jumps against Hitler's Atlantic Wall.

Recommended viewing...

Ike: Countdown to D-Day
No battle scenes, the story behind the story...

~ ~ ~

Band of Brothers - miniseries Episode 2 "Day of Days"
The perils of aerial assult.

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D-Day: Remembered (PBS) American Experience
--- 1 hr 34 min ---

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RIP - those brave men that did not come home.

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My father and his 2 brothers served during WW-II.
Sam (DAD) and Fred both landed in N.Africa, Scicly, Italy, S.France.
George was in the second wave that hit the beach at Normandy (Omaha).
All 3 survived the war.

Recommended reading: "D-Day" by Stephen Ambrose. I never understood the full impact of that event until I read his book.

Also recommended by Ambrose: "Citizen Soldiers", almost a sequel to D-Day in that it recounts in fascinating detail the immediate impact the Normandy Invasion had on the war in the early weeks afterward, culminating in Germany's surrender a year later.

Recommended reading: "D-Day" by Stephen Ambrose. I never understood the full impact of that event until I read his book.

Also recommended by Ambrose: "Citizen Soldiers", almost a sequel to D-Day in that it recounts in fascinating detail the immediate impact the Normandy Invasion had on the war in the early weeks afterward, culminating in Germany's surrender a year later.

I agree. This is probably the best and most readable book about the D Day invasion.

My father and his 2 brothers served during WW-II.
Sam (DAD) and Fred both landed in N.Africa, Scicly, Italy, S.France.
George was in the second wave that hit the beach at Normandy (Omaha).
All 3 survived the war.

Your family must have been very proud. How wonderful to have grown up knowing three such heroes.

I have a personal D Day tradition of listening to some of the live radio broadcasts from that day. It gives you a real sense of how frightening and exciting it was to everyone here in the US. There was a real fear that invasion would not be successful and the war could drag on even longer. Many of the people who first listened to these broadcast had loved ones involved.

Both of my grandfathers served during WWII. One was on a navy ship and said it was never under direct fire. My other grandfather wouldn't say much about the time he served in the Army. I know that he was in the Philippines, which he said was an awful place. His unit spent so much time in the wet jungle that his feet got 'jungle rot.' Despite earning an EIB badge, he said he survived enemy fire while in trenches by not sticking his head above the trench ... he just held his M1 rifle above the edge and sprayed bullets! Regardless, like Forrest Gump, he was shot in the rear. I don't think he ever requested the Purple Heart though because, when he passed away, I think he was only buried with his CIB badge.

Both of my grandfathers served during WWII. One was on a navy ship and said it was never under direct fire. My other grandfather wouldn't say much about the time he served in the Army. I know that he was in the Philippines, which he said was an awful place. His unit spent so much time in the wet jungle that his feet got 'jungle rot.' Despite earning an EIB badge, he said he survived enemy fire while in trenches by not sticking his head above the trench ... he just held his M1 rifle above the edge and sprayed bullets! Regardless, like Forrest Gump, he was shot in the rear. I don't think he ever requested the Purple Heart though because, when he passed away, I think he was only buried with his CIB badge.

You could request a copy of his DD214 which would list his service awards

The (CIB) Combat Infantryman Badgeis a United States Army military award. The badge is awarded to
infantrymen and Special Forces soldiers in the rank of colonel and below, who fought in active ground
combat while assigned as members of either an Infantry, Ranger or Special Forces unit, of brigade size
or smaller, any time after 6 December 1941

CIB

EIB

General Omar Bradley received the CIB (Honorary) for his actual combat action in N.Africa
He often stated that among all of his awards he was most proud of his CIB.
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...His unit spent so much time in the wet jungle that his feet got 'jungle rot.'..

Like "peanut allergy," jungle rot is something I thought an over wrought joke, until I saw it. Seen it on a Missionary, grown from a mosquito bite to a hole in his ankle, in days. He gave me a pair of wool socks before I headed in. Saved me a lot of grief and anti-bacterial, I've no doubt.

A true story:
He was a star baseball player for St. Ignatius and was scheduled to be in the minor leagues when drafted after graduating HS in '43. The base commander found this out and had him on the base baseball team playing with other Minor League & Star HS baseball players; got him out of being assigned to active duty once through boot camp. But being a typical teen he wanted to go across the ocean and kill Germans. Once D-Day happened he pushed for a transfer, it didn't come through until after the season was over and he was shipped off to France in the late fall as a replacement. A couple months later he was in a fox hole just outside Bastogne wondering what the heck was he thinking.

The "Bedford Boys"
Thirty-four Virginia National Guard soldiers from the town of Bedford were part of D-Day.
Nineteen of them were killed during the first day of the invasion, and four more died during the
rest of the Normandy campaign. The town and the "Bedford Boys" had proportionately suffered the
greatest losses of the campaign (56%), thus inspiring the United States Congress to establish the D-Day
memorial in Bedford

34 went in 23 died.

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(**)
roundel: an emblem painted on aircraft to identify it's
some are not round, like the Iron Cross-Balkenkreuz symbol of the Luftwaffe or the red star of the Russian Air Force.

Believe it or not the first US roundel was a red star.

During WW-I the US used the common scheme of red/blue/white...

- - -

Post WW-I until early 1942... note - the center red dot

With the advent of the war in the Pacific against Japan (roundel was a red disc
often referred to as a 'meatball') the red dot was removed due to friendly fire
that resulting damaged or downed aircraft (some people were trigger happy
when they saw the red dot)...

WW-II common themes...
Early
Later

- - -

Today's US aircraft carry...
or a low visibility (subdued) version ~there are several
i.e.

Trivia ---

Only a few US Military aircraft that do not carry the US marking - can you figure out which ones.
PS: they are all the same make and assigned to the same unit.

...I always think about my uncle at Memorial Day. He fought in the Pacific theater as a medic and awarded the Silver Star for his action on the island of Bougainville. When he was alive he would never talk about it when I'd ask him questions about WW2, I'm sure he saw enough blood and death then that he would never want to rehash it again.